A reliance on technology as a solution to crime is
simplistic. A society should address the causes of
crime (especially drug dependence and poverty).
Technical answers are inadequate and raise their own
problems.
1. Technology is now able to capture and retain
detailed information about individuals. Police
computers contain fingerprint information, sentencing
information and records of contacts with police.
There are millions of pieces of information held in
these computers about citizens of Victoria. An
addition o f a genetic identity database is more
worrying.
2. There is no time limit on how long the
information can be held.
3. There are some safeguards about when a DNA
sample is to be taken, but if the testing of person's
sample exonerates him or her from a crime, the sample
should be destroyed, not retained in a growing
computer databank.
4. The State is now creating a database about an
individual's genetic identity. The Kennett Government
intends to put the police computers in private hands.
The implications of this transfer to the private
sector have not been adequately addressed. The
individual has no opportunity to correct wrong
information contained on the database.
5. The State has huge resources to use expert
evidence. Even technical experts can be wrong (as the
Lindy Chamberlain case proved so dramatically). But
the defendant does not have equal resources - Legal
Aid budgets have been cut to shreds.not have equal
resources ˆ Legal Aid budgets have been cut to
shreds.